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| Dan Schwartz catches one of his 7 passes |
Posted 9/15/07
UW-Platteville penetrated Drake's side of the field on eight of its 11 drives, but the nation's top-ranked mid-major school allowed just one score in a 20-7 Bulldog victory Saturday at Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium.
Drake, ranked first by both Sports Network and Football Gazette inthe NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Mid-Major polls, overcame a 7-3 Pioneer halftime lead to remain unbeaten at 3-0. The Pioneers, an NCAA III school, fell to 1-1.
"I told the team that I was disappointed in the loss, but not discouraged," Pioneer Coach Mike Emendorfer said. "We beat ourselves. I see some great things in ourselves if we can correct some things."
The Bulldogs scored on their first three possessions of the second half, on a Michael Bialis three-yard run, a Cole Ingle quarterback sneak from a yard out, and Logan Rees' 29-yard field goal.
"That was the difference in the game," said Drake head football coach Steve Loney. "It was a tale of two halves. That is why you play four quarters."
The Pioneers reached Drake territory in all four quarters, but turned the ball over on downs three times, missed two field goals, fumbled on the 31 and threw an inteception in the end zone.
"We still haven't found the red-zone guy," Emendorfer said. "We had too many crucial drives that come up inches short."
The lone touchdown came with 14 seconds left in the half, when Michael Schmidt hit Dan Schwartz with a pass from two yards out. That erased a 3-0 first quarter Drake lead that came on Rees's 29-yard field goal 8:40 into the game.
The teams played remarkably even, with Drake gaining 402 yards to the Pioneers' 398. Scott Phaydavong led the Drake offense with 149 rushing yards as he surpassed 5,000 for his career. (He now has 5,134.) Drake quarterbacks Ingle and Derek Retherford combined to throw for 257 yards, including seven for 100 yards to Travis Hardgraves.
The Pioneers' Mike Genslinger ran for 139 yards, while Schmidt completed 25 of 40 passes for 278 yards, including seven for 75 to Schwartz. The Bulldogs sacked Schmidt 10 times for losses of 72 yards.
"Our defense stepped up and played very well," Emendorfer said. "To keep them at 20 points with the way we were moving the football, I thought we would have scored a couple more times."
Quincy Hudson and David Pietrowiak each made nine tackles for the Pioneers, while lineman Chris Booze had six.
"It's a good confidence boost in that we have the potential to do some great things, but we have to execute," Booze said. "We just have to fix some small things and we'll be fine."
The Pioneers face their third team that has been nationally ranked next Saturday when they face Augustana in Rock Island, Ill.
"We don't want Drake to cause us two or three losses," Emendorfer said. "We have to accept it for what it is and realize we have a lot of football left. Drake is very similar to teams in our conference, like the Whitewater's, La Crosse's and Stevens Point's, and we played very well against them. If we can correct our mistakes, I like our opportunities going into the conference."
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